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Five UTHSC Professors Win Health Care Heroes Awards

 

            Memphis, Tenn. (September 8, 2006) – Demonstrating the breadth of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s (UTHSC) strength in health care, five UTHSC professors emerged as winners of the Memphis Business Journal’s Annual Health Care Heroes Awards last night. Held at the Hilton-Memphis, the newspapers’ Eighth Annual Awards Banquet honored finalists from across the local health care community, including a total of 10 UTHSC faculty.

            From a field of outstanding Memphis health care contributors, Roger Hiatt, MD, professor emeritus in the College of Medicine, was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award.  Barbara Connolly, EdD, PT, chairman of the Department of Physical Therapy, College of Allied Health Sciences, received the Health Care Provider Non-Physician Award.  Jim Dale, MD, professor of medicine, took home the Health Care Innovations Award.  Stanley Kaplan, MD, professor, College of Medicine, was named Health Care Provider Physician.  Waletha Wasson, DDS, associate professor in the Department of Restorative Dentistry, College of Dentistry, garnered the Community Outreach Award.

Chancellor William F. Owen, who congratulated the winners at the event, said, “UT Health Science Center’s pervasive impact on Memphis and the Mid-South was evident tonight.  The winners and the additional Health Science Center finalists, were nominated by their affiliate health care providers where they serve patients on a daily basis.”  He noted, “Our faculty is among the best in the country whether they are teaching future health care providers, conducting research, caring for patients, or serving our community.”

  Among the finalists were: Michael C. Levin, MD, associate professor, College of Medicine, and chief of neurology at the VA Medical Center;    Duane Miller, PhD, professor in the College of Pharmacy and director of medical chemistry for GTX, Inc;  Peter Netland, MD, professor of ophthalmology and director of the UT Hamilton Eye Institute Glaucoma Service; James Wheless, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Le Bonheur Neuroscience Program; and Robert Williams, PhD, professor of genetics in the medical college’s Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology.   

In addition to Dr. Owen, the winners and finalists, other UTHSC representatives attending the event included: Mrs. Alice Owen, wife of the Chancellor; Michael Caudle, MD, vice chancellor for health system affairs for UTHSC; William Frey, PhD, dean of the College of Allied Health Sciences;  Russell Gilpatrick, DDS, dean of the College of Dentistry, and his wife, Donna; La Don Jones, PhD, vice chancellor of community relations; Stephen Schwab, MD, executive dean of the College of Medicine, and Pat Wall, MD, interim dean of the College of Medicine, Memphis campus.

            As the Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Dr. Hiatt’s 44-year career as an ophthalmologist has been a testimony to service, both in teaching and medical missionary work.  In addition to hundreds of students trained while he was chairman of the ophthalmology department for 30 years at UTHSC, Dr. Hiatt has taught doctors around the world through his educational missionary trips.  He has trained residents in ophthalmology in both hemispheres—in Mexico and Guatemala, as well as the Philippines, China, Egypt and Sudan.  His dedication to helping others is evident in his statement, “I’m fortunate that medicine is a form of service.  I would do it if I never got paid.”

Dr. Wasson was recognized for her numerous outreach efforts in the community through the field of dentistry.   Her focus on underserved populations and her leadership have convinced volunteers from the UTHSC College of Dentistry to donate their time to touch the lives of more than 3,700 people at 84 different venues to date.  Through the Tennessee Smiles: UT Grassroots Oral Health Outreach Initiative, which Dr. Wasson spearheaded in 2003, she has organized or participated in more than 50 health and career fairs within the Memphis community. 

As an internationally known professor of physical therapy, Dr. Barbara Connolly was named the Health Care Provider Non-Physician Award.  She regularly reaches out far beyond the classroom to make an impact on the Mid-South region.  She co-founded the Down Parents of Memphis (now Down Syndrome Association of the Mid-South), served on the Advisory Committee of the West Tennessee United Cerebral Palsy Association and during her 33-year tenure, has been the pediatric consultant for many school systems, including Tate County, Senatobia City Schools, Desoto County and Weakley County Schools.  Through her position as chairman of the department of physical therapy at UTHSC, Dr. Connolly has shaped the boundaries of the entire physical therapy field. 

            Dr. Dale, who is also associate chief of staff for education at the VA Medical Center, received the Healthcare Innovations Award.  For more than 25 years, he has researched the development of a vaccine for Group A Streptococci, which can cause everything from mild sore throat to toxic shock syndrome to rheumatic fever, a disease that kills 1,400 people every day worldwide.  Dr. Dale has developed a vaccine that promises to curtail strep and prevent its deadly effects.  He refers to the vaccine, StrepAvax, as the most complex genetically engineered vaccine ever designed for human use.  With the ability to prevent 90 percent of serious Strep A infections, this vaccine has the potential to prevent 21 million cases of rheumatic fever alone in one year.

            Dr. Kaplan was presented the Health Care Provider Physician Award because of his devotion to patients, many of whom travel across the country to be treated for crippling arthritis.  More than 95 percent of those patients rate their experience with him as “exceptional.”  This year he received the Tennessee Rheumatology Society’s very first President’s Award and was once again named to The Best Doctors in America, a peer-ranked national list.

As the flagship statewide academic health system, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is focused on a four-tier mission of education, research, patient care and community service, all in support of a single goal: to improve the health of Tennesseans.  Offering a broad range of postgraduate training opportunities, the main campus, which includes six colleges, is located in Memphis.  UTHSC has additional College of Medicine campus locations in Knoxville and Chattanooga.  For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.